Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers build judgment and decision making, coordination and time management skills that carry over to other work. Below are 25 careers ranked by how closely their skills match, with pay from BLS May 2025. The closest match is Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products (84%).
Updated October 2026 · Data: O*NET 31.0 and BLS OEWS May 2025 · How we match careers
Sorted by skill match.
| # | Career | Skill match | Median pay | Pay change | Extra education |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products | 84% | $35,730 | −7% | None |
| 2 | Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals | 82% | $36,670 | −4% | None |
| 3 | Packers and Packagers, Hand | 82% | $36,280 | −5% | None |
| 4 | Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders | 81% | $43,220 | +13% | None |
| 5 | Machine Feeders and Offbearers | 79% | $41,220 | +8% | None |
| 6 | Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 78% | $40,240 | +5% | None |
| 7 | Cooks, Restaurant | 75% | $37,390 | −2% | None |
| 8 | Cooks, Short Order | 74% | $35,880 | −6% | None |
| 9 | Food Preparation Workers | 74% | $35,320 | −8% | None |
| 10 | Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 73% | $48,540 | +27% | None |
Compared with Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers, median $38,300. Skill match is our estimate (0–99) from O*NET 31.0 skills, knowledge, work activities and interests, adjusted for preparation and big pay drops. Pay: BLS OEWS May 2025, national median.
How important each skill is in work as meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers (O*NET importance, scale 1–5).
The gaps that show up most often across your top 10 matches.
Free and low-cost training: use the CareerOneStop training finder below.
A concrete first step, the skills to add, and the hard parts of each job, from O*NET 31.0 education, training and work context data.
84% skill match · $35,730 · −7% pay
Systems Analysis
82% skill match · $36,670 · −4% pay
Equipment Maintenance · Repairing · Equipment Selection
82% skill match · $36,280 · −5% pay
Programming · Systems Analysis · Systems Evaluation
If you want to stay close to what you do now, these roles are the nearest.
The closest matches are Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products (84% skill match, median $35,730), Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals (82% skill match, median $36,670) and Packers and Packagers, Hand (82% skill match, median $36,280), based on O*NET 31.0 data and BLS May 2025 pay.
Among the 25 matches, 13 pay more than meat, poultry, and fish cutters and trimmers at the median. The biggest increases: Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders (+35%, $51,610), Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters (+34%, $51,330) and Hazardous Materials Removal Workers (+29%, $49,450).
25 of the 25 matches usually need no more education than you have now, based on O*NET Job Zones.
We compare the importance of skills, knowledge, work activities and interests in O*NET 31.0 for your job and every other career, then adjust for extra preparation and big pay drops. The full method is on our Methodology page.